Gratiano, a friend of Antonio and Bassanio, becomes Nerissa’s suitor in The Merchant of Venice. One of Gratiano’s key functions in the play is to help Lorenzo and his beloved, Shylock’s daughter Jessica, elope from her father’s house. In Act II, Scene 6, Gratiano and Salarino wait outside Shylock’s house for Lorenzo to arrive and discuss the pace at which lovers move, depending on whether they are going toward or leaving their lover.

When Salarino comments that Lorenzo may be late, Gratiano responds that this surprises him because lovers usually run early on their way to an assignation. Salarino adds that lovers who are newly committed move much faster than those who just maintaining a relationship. Gratiano then delivers a monologue on lovers’ behavior, using a number of different metaphors.

His first comparison is to eating a rich meal, asking who moves faster after a feast than they did before eating. His next analogy is to a horse’s pace before starting a race and after finishing it. He avers that the chase is what brings the most enjoyment, not obtaining the prize: “All things that are/ Are with more spirit chased than enjoy'd.” His last, more extended comparison is to a ship, which moves quickly before the wind when she sets sail from she home port but returns like the “prodigal” (that is, the Bible’s prodigal son), in poor condition, with her “ragged sails,/Lean, rent and beggar'd.”